From 1951-1990, in the state of Ohio alone, over 40 students were killed in accidents outside of school buses. An appreciable number of these fatalities resulted from children wandering into the path of the bus as it departed from the drop site. A small child, even when crossing directly in front of the bus, may be obscured from the view of the driver who must also be attuned to approaching traffic as well as to disembarking children. Complicating the problem is the tendency of child to dawdle around the bus or to chase papers and the like underneath the bus rather than to proceed directly out of harm's way upon disembarking. Tragically, a disembarked child who has strayed too near the bus, his or her attention directed elsewhere, may be unaware of the danger engendered by the departure of the bus until it is too late for either the driver or the child to avoid a serious accident.
To militate against accidents caused by oncoming traffic and the like, many school buses have been equipped with various safety devices. School buses commonly employ red and amber signal lamps and a stop arm to alert traffic of an impending stop. In operation, with the entrance handle closed, the driver actuates a manual switch to activate the flashing of the amber signal lamps to indicate the stopping of the bus. When the entrance door handle is moved toward the open position, the amber warning lights are deactivated and the red warning lights are actuated to indicate that children are departing from the bus. Concomitantly, a stop arm is extended to reveal additional flashing red lights as well as a stop sign configured in the symbolic shape of an octagon. When the entrance door handle is closed, all the lights are deactivated and the stop arm retracts automatically. School buses also are typically equipped with an audible electrical warning device that is actuated when the bus is in reverse gear. An audible warning signal is maintained as long as the bus is in reverse gear.
Although the aforementioned devices have been shown to reduce the number of fatalities associated with student busing, school districts are continually searching for ways of making student transport safer. Accordingly, there has existed and remains a need for ways of alerting students to the danger attending a school bus departing from its drop site.